"His Royal Highness the King of the West, everyone has arrived." Xiao Yungui was woken up by Tang Erniu's voice outside the door, after arriving at the Shanghai Lecture Martial Arts Hall late last night, Xiao Yungui ordered someone to inform the main persons in charge of the Lecture Martial Arts Hall to meet early tomorrow morning.

Xiao Yungui rubbed his somewhat sour eyes, and replied: "I know, this king will come soon." "After settling down in the martial arts hall last night, Xiao Yungui lay down in his clothes, but he slept for two hours before dawn. As the people and territory he managed became bigger and bigger, Xiao Yungui found that his personal time had disappeared, as if his wife was pregnant, and he had no time to take care of it, and now he even had less and less time to sleep.

"It's really hard to be a good prince and a good emperor." Xiao Yungui smiled mockingly, got up and freshened up. He has always maintained his habit of grooming and dressing, and there are no subordinates, slaves and maids to serve, which has also become a virtue widely praised by the whole of the West Temple, and it has also become a beautiful talk to imitate.

Walk quickly to the main hall of Jiangwutang, this main hall can not be understood as a traditional Chinese palace style, it is more like a foreign Gothic architectural style, softening some local architectural styles. This three-story building, which is neither Chinese nor Western, is the office building of the Martial Arts School. Although Xiao Yungui knew that it was an office building, according to the custom of the Chinese, the people who spoke about the martial arts hall still gave it a Chinese-style name, called Xuanwu Building, and the largest conference hall inside was called the Shengwu Hall.

In fact, Xiao Yungui doesn't pay much attention to what it's called, but more to its practical functions. Xiao Yungui came to the martial arts school several times, but the construction of the Xuanwu Building had not been completed at that time, and later because he wanted to settle the petition of the township officials from all over the country, the king of the West missed the opening ceremony of the Xuanwu Building.

The first time he stepped into the Xuanwu Building, Xiao Yungui was attracted by its interior, and there were no dragons and phoenixes carved on the pillars and under the Langfang in the building. Instead, it is decorated with swords and guns, and the rich martial arts atmosphere is rushing towards you. In the foyer of the building is a huge "Han Army Out of the Sai Tu", this huge painting of three zhang long and one zhang high and 20 feet high is from the collective creation of many painters of Su Song folk, it depicts the majestic style of the Han army when it came out of the fortress more than 1,900 years ago, the soldiers and soldiers of the Han Army, the halberd is like a forest, the horse is like a flying swallow, and the battle flag is hunting, so that people will be proud at first sight.

On both sides of the foyer are reliefs of the bloody battles of the Taiping army. And engraved with Xiao Yungui personally compiled the new military regulations of the Taiping Army in the West Palace. Going up the stairs, the offices of the various military departments and divisions are arranged in an orderly manner, and the top floor is the Holy Martial Hall and various small combat deduction rooms or meeting halls.

Xuanwu Tower, like most of the buildings in the Martial Arts Academy, was designed and built by foreigners, and Xiao Yungui and Hong Yun'er changed many places. That's why it has such a strange appearance. But Xiao Yungui hopes that these buildings are neither traditional Chinese nor Western-style buildings. He prefers to have a clear combination of Chinese and Western styles. Because he is giving people a psychological hint, the things taught in the martial arts school are also a combination of Chinese and Western.

The whole Xuanwu building can be seen everywhere in the Han army of various dynasties to resist the invasion of foreign historical pictures, carvings and reliefs, the whole building gives people the atmosphere is the great Han martial arts. Xiao Yungui hopes that this kind of martial arts can revive the martial style of the nation, although it is more than a thousand years after being spoken by the state of etiquette.

In the Shengwu Temple, pictures of the uniforms of the Han army of various periods are hung on the walls, and hundreds of teachers and students of the martial arts school are watching. From time to time, he pointed and discussed something excitedly. It was the first time that the Holy Martial Hall had welcomed so many people, and although many of them were studying in the Martial Arts Academy, it was the first time that the Holy Martial Hall had come.

In fact, Xiao Yungui doesn't remember whether there is anything wrong with these Han army uniforms. It was all drawn by Hong Yun'er according to the historical materials she had seen, and there might be errors in it, but Xiao Yungui didn't care, all he wanted was to let the soldiers here know the glorious history of the Han army.

"His Royal Highness the King of the West has arrived!" After the door of the Holy Martial Hall was opened, Tang Erniu saw that everyone in the hall was looking at the paintings on the wall, and immediately shouted loudly.

After hearing this, everyone in the hall quickly returned to their positions, and all of them occupied a straight position, and the whole process only took half a minute.

Xiao Yungui was very satisfied with their swiftness, what a soldier should have was this kind of resolute attitude. After standing on his main seat, Xiao Yungui waved his hand and said, "Sit down!" ”

Hundreds of people in the hall have their own seats behind them, and after saluting Xiao Yungui to a new military salute unique to the West Palace, everyone sat down in unison, no one made a sound, no one was hypocritical, and no one pushed down, their style has the demeanor of later generations of soldiers.

The closest to Xiao Yungui is the principal of the Martial Arts Academy, Lin Qirong of the Political Department of the Shanghai Army, since Xiao Yungui arranged for him to establish the task of the Martial Arts Academy, he has been doing it very well. Opposite him was Wang Minyun of the Political Department of the Shanghai Navy, who served as the vice president of the Shanghai Martial Arts School and also served as the director of the Political Department. Let Lin Qirong and Wang Minyun, the two top leaders of the Shanghai Navy and politics, concurrently serve as the principal and vice principal of the Martial Arts School, which shows that Xiao Yungui attaches great importance to the Martial Arts School.

This was followed by Liszt, the general adviser of the Western Instructor Advisory Group of the Martial Arts Academy, and his assistant Barrett. These two were the two British officers whom Xiao Yungui had met when he attacked Shanghai. Liszt had served as a military adviser to the Taiping Army for a time, but was later called back by Lord Wenhan. At that time, Liszt was still a soldier, and the British soldiers held the idea of serving the queen, so Liszt asked Xiao Yungui to resign. But after returning to China, Liszt was immediately dismissed from his military position, and in addition to the fact that he usually offended too many superiors, he took up the role of a military adviser to an armed Liliang without authorization, and this crime still played a catalytic role to some extent. Zuihou Liszt is unemployed and faces prosecution by a number of military courts. Fortunately, with the help of his friend Barrett and others, Liszt Zuihou was only expelled from the military.

After Liszt suffered unfair treatment at home, he did not give up on himself, he entangled a few friends and returned to Shanghai, he accepted Lin Qirong's invitation to set up a foreign instructor advisory group for the martial arts school, responsible for recruiting suitable foreign instructors for the martial arts school.

In Liszt's view, he is no longer a British officer, there is no problem in serving as an instructor in the Taiping Army, and the Taiping Army is not hostile to the British, and his behavior is not treason, not to mention that Liszt has always believed that the Taiping Army will definitely gain control of all of China in the future, and he just wants to win potential friends for the motherland and the queen.

Historically, there were hundreds of foreign soldiers in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and there were about 200 foreign volunteers under the loyal king Li Xiucheng. These people came from Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Africa, and there were as many as fifty or sixty fighters from Africa. There are a total of 13 people from Europe and the United States, including 5 from the United Kingdom, 4 from the United States, 2 from France, 1 from Italy, and 1 from Greece. Six people were killed in the fighting, and that number does not include their families, such as Mary, the Englishman's wife.

And now Xiao Yungui has changed history, and Liszt, a retired or abandoned British officer, has become the commander of this foreign officer corps and the general adviser of the foreign instructor advisory group. Through the efforts of Liszt and Barrett, they recruited as many as 342 foreign instructors for the Shanghai Martial Arts School.

Xiao Yungui's Taiping occupation of Shanghai and his enlightened trade policies further stimulated the great powers, such as his abolition of exorbitant taxes in the interior and the cheaper entry of foreign trade goods into the Chinese market. Moreover, Xiao Yungui's Taiping Army in the West Hall even won the tacit support of the British Rothschild family, and the British Parliament even issued a motion in support of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to overthrow the Manchu Empire.

On both sides of the seemingly enlightened Taiping Army in the West Temple and the ignorant and backward Manchu Qing Dynasty, the great powers began to favor the Taiping Army intentionally or unintentionally, and behind this, Xiao Yungui's huge and ambitious investment Jihua was also an important part. Railroads, telegraph lines, arms purchases, and orders for the construction of civilian factories alone made the Great Powers choose the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom without hesitation, at least when they remained neutral, and there was no hindrance to cooperation and trade with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This was not as hypocritical and prevaricating as the Manchu Qing Dynasty, in the words of the new British minister Bao Ling, who was fed up with the hypocritical and self-righteous officialdom of the Manchu officials, and Bao Ling, who had only arrived in China at the beginning of the year, sent a note to Ye Mingchen, the Minister of International Trade (although only three were left), and Bao Ling wanted to go to Beijing in person to present his credentials and negotiate the exchange of the treaty. But now, several months have passed, and Bao Ling's note has been pushed back and forth in the three places of Wukou International Trade Minister, the Governor of Liangjiang, and Beijing, and there is no reply, no follow-up, everything is the same word.

It was precisely because of the inclination of the great powers that Liszt's recruitment was carried out smoothly, and many retired officers from various countries came to Shanghai to try their luck. It has to be said that the salaries offered by the West Hall to foreign instructors are five times that of the national army in which they used to serve, and many officers even resigned to enlist. But the requirements of the West Hall Martial Arts Academy are also very strict, and people who do not have a skill have no chance, and the West King prefers officers with actual combat experience.

Among the 342 foreign instructors now working at the Shanghai Martial Arts School, almost all of them are involved in the army's military department, and they are responsible for compiling military teaching materials, guiding and training the Chinese instructors of the martial arts school, and most importantly, imparting to the officers and men of the Chinese Taiping Army their precious experience in actual combat.

After a few months of running-in, the first 1,000 or so officers and guards of the West Temple have adapted to these foreign instructors. Although there is a big gap between them in culture and customs, there is one thing they have in common, they are all soldiers, and soldiers take obedience to orders as their vocation, which is the first thing that the first batch of students of the West Hall Martial Arts School learned.

After experiencing quarrels, beatings and even group fights, a group of Chinese and foreign soldiers strangely blended together, for the simple reason that both sides need each other and need to prove themselves through each other. (To be continued......)